From Ore To Braided Copper Rope – Copper’s Journey

Copper is a wonder metal that was discovered close to 8000 years back. It is found in lavas, minerals, and even in the human liver and sea corals. The name Copper has been derived from ‘Cyprium Aes’ which means a metal from Cyprus. In ancient times, copper is used extensively to make coins.

The major producers of copper in the world now are Peru, USA, and China.

By 4500 BC, people learned how to smelt copper, which increased its utility many times over. It occurs in the ore form, which is full of impurities. To get pure copper, the core must be smelted. Ever since its discovery, this shiny red metal has been in continuous use and its applications have only increased with time. Copper is an extremely ductile metal, which means it is not very hard or strong. So, with time came alloys. The very first was bronze, which is made by adding tin to copper. This addition provided the much-needed toughness to the metal. In fact, the popularity of this metal was such that it gave rise to the term “Bronze Age”. When copper is mixed with zinc, it forms another famous alloy, brass. Both these alloys have specific applications and are developed sometimes for exacting purposes. Let’s take the example of brass here, which, with its superior acoustic properties, is used in musical instruments like cymbals, bells, trumpets, etc.

Another feature of copper is its resistance to atmospheric and seawater actions – it can withstand tremendous exposure to these without showing any apparent effects. However, it is susceptible to air and long exposure to it leads to the formation of a green coating on copper, a famous example of which is the green covering on the Statue of Liberty.

Copper is now a major industrial metal which ranks third on the basis of quantities consumed, after iron and aluminium.

Braided Copper Rope

The extremely high electrical conductivity feature of copper makes it a very useful metal for usage in chemical and electrical fields. Copper wires have seen an exponential increase in usage over the years. In fact, they are heavily used in motors.

Among various forms such as rods and wires, copper is also made into braided ropes. They are made by combining tin-coated copper wires or silver-coated ones.

Braided Copper Rope has many uses, right from being used as a flexible joint for electrical appliances to grounding wire for various electrical purposes. It is used extensively in both low and high voltage electrical appliances and industries such as marine and automobile.

Copper is braided to add ease of usage and flexibility. Unlike straight wires which are used for various appliances, braided wires are used for deep sea operation devices, headphones, and even for creating jewelry.

Now that the advantages of braided ropes are more and more apparent to users, the demand for those is growing higher with the passing of every single day.